Posts Tagged With: wedding

We didn’t have a big wedding. It was an afternoon wedding with about 100 people there. I remember it had rained all week and had been cold. On my wedding day (27 years ago today) it turned off sunny and 75 degrees. It was beautiful, but I was hot and nervous.

I recall walking into the church and seeing big purple banners that the janitor had hung and freaked out because those horrible banners would be in my wedding photos. (I made them take them down and mind you – this is an hour before the wedding.) The groom and groomsmen were late for photos. After that, I really don’t recall much at all. I don’t remember walking down the aisle. I don’t remember what I said. I don’t remember much of the reception. It is all a blurrrrrrrrrrrrr. I have to look at the photos to make sure it really did happen and that I didn’t just wake up married one day.

The one thing I do remember (and this is so weird). The bridesmaids had walked down and the flower girl was walking down towards the front of the church. My Dad and I were still behind closed doors and he turns to me and said “I won’t be mad if you want to change your mind.” (He didn’t want me to get married so young. I was only 20.) Maybe that’s why I don’t remember anything. I was having a stroke at that moment!

Needless to say, everything worked out. The hubster and I have been married 27 years today. And Daddy, thanks for worrying about me and loving me. :)

Okay, okay – so I’ll give GIMP a try. I’ll let you know how it compares to Photoshop. Fair warning – once I’m in love with something, it is difficult to persuade me to try anything else. But – who knows, I’m might be pulled over to the dark side of open source.

As previously posted, my daughter married last summer and I’ve been slowly but surely editing, cropping, and other fun things to the photos. The photographer, JS Photos did a beautiful job and some of the wedding photos can be viewed Here. Just in case you’re wondering, the wedding was held in the formal garden at the Crescent Hotel in Historic Eureka Springs, Arkansas. We had a blast!

On with the Photoshopping. Em wanted to give her Dad a picture of them from the wedding for his night stand as a Christmas present. Problem: subjects are not close enough to the camera, ugly speaker on the right and an ugly telephone pole shooting out the top of my daughter’s head. While I’m against cloning animals and human beings, this is one instance where I approve of cloning. Cloning (in Photoshop) is a good thing! Your clone tool in the Photoshop menu appears as a rubber stamp icon. Select that tool, and then select an area to replicate and the paint over the uglies. Be very careful while duplicating or it will look fake. A little bit a time, patience and steady hand. Here’s the original photo.

And, here’s the corrected photo after cloning out the telephone pole and part of the speaker (had to clone trees, rock wall and grass), zooming and slight color correction. Viola! No Uglies. Just proud Pappa and lovely bride.

Go play with the clone tool. Erase wrinkles, erase moles, erase people you don’t like – go for it.

I downloaded the latest trial version of Adobe Cs3 and I’m pretty sure I’m going to sell my jewelry or a small child so I can afford to buy a license once my trial expires. (just kidding – I don’t own any jewelry). ;)

Here are some photo edits I’ll share with you.

This is the original photo of my great niece CC taken at my daughter’s wedding last summer.

I’ve rotated the image, zoomed in, cropped it, color enhanced it, blurred the people in the background to create depth of field that did not exist. Cool, ain’t it!

Then, desaturate the color to B&W and sharpen and enhance contrast (added a little “noise” for fun).

I LOVE this software! Okay – here’s another one.

Original photo of my daughter waiting in the bride’s room just before the wedding. She was reading a card my mother gave to her.

Here’s the enhanced version. Created depth of field on the background, desaturated color levels and filter “glow” was added. I think it creates a dreamy look.

If you haven’t tried photoshop, go give a try at http://www.adobe.com. Trial version is free for 30 days.

Now I have to decide how to afford this without breaking any laws. (just kidding……really…….I am……STOP!)